A 5 dollar note says this Maxwell Daemon process has to be on par with reverse osmosis in terms of energy consumption, with the added complication of exotic chemicals.
All the dry regions are rather sunny, solar reverse osmosis sounds like a no-brainer.
Honestly the ideal contraption would be something that can harness the solar on the sea directly. That would be something especially if it is in the form of fishing nets at surface.
You don't need fresh water in the sea, you need it on shore.
The cost of maintaining anything in the sea is orders of magnitude above that on shore.
A cubic meter of fresh water costs about 3-4 kWh, desal plants are rather compact unlike the solar to power them and land tends to be expensive near shores so it makes no sense to combine solar and desal on the same site.
All the dry regions are rather sunny, solar reverse osmosis sounds like a no-brainer.